The Father's Heart Compels Me to Adopt


Grace's 7th Birthday Party- October 25, 2009

Some of the most asked questions I hear are:

Why did you decide to adopt?
Why did you adopt overseas and not here in America where there are so many orphans already?
And why special needs?

The most obvious or expected answer might be that I will point you to James 1:27 (Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world.) or tell you that God laid adoption on my heart as a small child. These would be true answers. But honestly, it is much deeper than that. We might have started our first adoption because of these reasons but now it is so much more.

I was once an orphan astray from my Heavenly Father but when He came to me, a became alive for the very first time. As I stand naked before Him, flaws and all, I am overwhelmed in joyful tears that I have a Daddy who is not critical, who sees potential and knows my heart. I am blessed to have a Daddy who speaks to me intimately and shows me those things that matter to Him. I have a Daddy who never leaves, holds me when I have fallen and wipes away my tears. I have a Daddy that defends me and enables me. When you meet the Father's love you are unable to contain it. The Father's heart is neverending, it overflows and it touches others. Adoption is perhaps the most beautiful expression of our Father's love for us. The more I grow as a daughter, the more I grow as a mother. The Father's love residing inside fills our hearts with more and more capacity to love His children and to be vessels for Him to express that love in real human tangible ways. It is not a feeling of obligation but, wow, I get to be used by you to fill the heart of another, to the LEAST. It is an honor you know. It is an honor to be entrusted with the defenseless, the weak, the rejected. I don't think there is any act the Lord sees upon this earth more beautiful because it is His essence. We see it expressed in the life of Jesus.

We adopted overseas because our hearts were burdened. We didn't decide to NOT adopt a child from America and at any moment the Lord should direct us in this way, we are eager to respond with a YES! The Lord also revealed to us that those children with special needs are the least likely to be adopted, least likely to receive medical care (let alone anything else)and most likely to die if left in an institution. We are witnesses of a real life miracle. We have in our home a child that had a very slim chance of life outside of a mental institution. A child who once was described as "low mental functioning, on the autism spectrum and fetal alcohol syndrome." Boy, weren't those scary words to hear. But that's just it. That was mans words, not God's. God says, this is my creation and she is good. There is work involved, there is time involved, there is a need for flexibility but then there is GRACE. God's grace is a haven for which I reside. And in that residence is the unfolding story, blossoming eruption over time of all that God has placed inside of our Grace Marina. This is truth. Not where she came from, not what she looked like, acted like, or was defined as but what she is becoming because of love. The more time passes I realize that I have special needs too. Needs only my Father in Heaven can meet.

It is the intimate journey that our Father has walked alongside revealing His plan for us that leads us in the way we will go. This is true for our entire life, not just adoption! Don't get caught up in what others are doing, get caught up with what God is doing with you. He loves you, He loves you, He loves you!

Comments

Leslie said…
This is a beautiful entry. (As they all have been and, I expect, will be because your words are deep and moving, cutting to the very core of the matter and leaving the reader with a lovely gift of being drawn more closely into the presence and embrace of our Heavenly Father.) But I especially appreciate what you said about why you were drawn to adopt overseas. What you said was true - that special needs children have a less likely chance of being adopted and given medical attention. BUT, you also reminded us to stop looking at what others are doing and focus on what God is doing...or wants us to do with our lives. I have heard many people speak as if adopting overseas is a much higher calling...so much more important and noble than adopting a newborn or a child in the foster care system here in the US. And the truth of the matter is EVERY adoption is important! All of these children matter and they are all needing a home. Our Heavenly Father loves them all equally. So what's really important is not what country you are adopting from or if your child has "special needs" or not BUT to obey the voice of the Holy Spirit. What is God asking you to do? What burden has He laid on your heart? And what are you doing to prepare yourself to relieve that burden? No one situation is more crucial than the other. No one child deserves to be rescued more than another. What is crucial is that our hearts and ears are bent and in tune with the voice of the Holy Spirit and that we are prepared to be the answer to our own prayers. God, rescue these little ones, I pray, and prepare me to be the answer to my own prayer.
Precious post! Thank you for sharing. There's so much to share with the world when one starts a new blog. I'm sure Father is very happy with what you've chosen to share in your first blog entries. May you continue to glorify and serve Him with joy.
PS Dolly is SUCH a CUTIE! I just love those big brown eyes, and I remember her from RR.
Your blog is filled with so much of your interpretations of the Bible. Considering many adoption agencies use religion or guilt to induce people like you to adopt.
1) there is NOT 43 Million orphans in the world. There are many children in the usa that are homeless 1.4 million as there are in other countries but they are not "relinquished orphans" they have a family that loves them, but are poor. Is adoption the answer to poverty? Tearing one family apart so another family is formed?
Pitting a poor woman against a wealthy educated woman who believes she has more rights to raise someone elses child?
2) Ask for an accounting of where your money goes. It is amazing how millions are pumped into adoption agencies yet very little goes back to the orphans to improve their care. Meanwhile note the mercedes car that your facilitator drives.
Start taking care of the hopeless children of America they need you more than a child whose picture is used to induce you into adoption.
www.adoptuskids.org
And PLEASE stop with the religious crap it is so frightening that you don't have a mind of your own.

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